Chapter 122: Copying the Caladbolg! Delivering the Final Blow to Secure Victory!
Death God Thanatos, currently the leader of the Dark faction, is also Shirou's opponent in this game of gods.
From the moment he appeared, Death God Thanatos has been demonstrating the ability to "manipulate souls." He can control the souls of others besides himself, twisting the souls in reality.
However, although the manifestation of his power appears to be "manipulating souls," this is not the true nature of Thanatos's authority.
Death God Thanatos's true power can be understood from his divine title.
His actual ability is not related to souls, but rather "mastery over death."
To interfere with the "life and death" of things, to distort a being's perception of life and death — this is the real essence of Thanatos's power.
The reason he can manipulate souls is because of his understanding and use of the power over death.
Just as Shirou thought, the essence of the soul indeed has a "wave-particle duality."
The reason the death god can manipulate others' souls is because he has penetrated the essence of the "wave-particle duality" of the soul, understanding that the soul is a concrete physical particle, and at the same time, a fleeting wave that is always spreading and evolving.
Because the material soul has the property of physical embodiment, it is very difficult to interfere with it.
Therefore, the death god uses his power to "master death" to enter the microscopic level and, through quantum-level interference, superimposes his own soul with the other's soul, enabling his influence over the target's soul.
Of course, because the soul's essence is wave-particle duality, if someone can observe the process of soul manipulation at the microscopic level, the observer effect in the microscopic domain will be triggered.
As long as one can, like Thanatos, understand the wave-particle duality of the soul, and observe the soul's essence in the microscopic state by some means, it is entirely possible to interrupt Thanatos's soul manipulation.
But such a thing requires not only extremely keen observation to discover the essence and truth of the soul, but also the use of special means to carry out observation at the microscopic level...
To achieve this, it's not only impossible for ordinary humans, even the gods of Orly cannot accomplish it.
However, such an impossible thing was just witnessed by Thanatos himself.
He witnessed a human accomplishing what should never happen: understanding the concept of the soul and observing the essence of the soul — a miracle!
Moreover, since the method Thanatos used is essentially a power over death,
Shirou observing Thanatos's soul manipulation process essentially equates to understanding Thanatos's power over death.
He personally witnessed the process of death, and with a mortal's mind understood the concept of death, thus effectively mastering death.
Of course, Shirou himself has not yet comprehended this.
He does not yet know that he has unconsciously acquired the power of the "Magic Eye of Death Perception" that does not originally belong to him.
"Is it really possible for a human to do such a thing?" Thanatos was stunned in disbelief, "Can humans truly understand the essence of death?"
Even Thanatos, the death god, found it hard to imagine such a thing happening.
But no matter how hard he found it to imagine or comprehend, it all truly happened.
When Shirou entered the microscopic world and witnessed the death god using the power of "death" to twist the wave of the soul and manipulate it, the observer effect immediately took place.
At the instant an observer appeared, the microscopic waves collapsed, returning to a tangible particle state.
As a result, Lefiya's soul was no longer affected by Thanatos and began to restore to its normal state.
Next, as long as Lefiya completely recovered and used the holy sword in her hand to defeat Thanatos's last piece, the Masked Man, Shirou would achieve victory in this game of gods.
However, just when everything was moving toward a positive direction, Lefiya's expression suddenly changed, and she began to show extreme pain!
"What is this?!"
Shirou frowned.
He did not expect such a turn of events.
Most importantly, he was certain that the soul manipulation had already been interrupted, and Lefiya's soul should no longer experience any abnormalities.
"Do you think it's over just like that?" Thanatos smiled at Shirou, "Unfortunately, Emiya Shirou, you are indeed very impressive — you can even see through the essence of the soul — but you still made a wrong judgment, which is that you misunderstood my power!"
"Misunderstood your power… wait, could it be?"
"That's right. You may have already sensed it — my power is not to manipulate souls, but to master death! Distorting the life and death of things is my sole ability! The ability to manipulate souls is just a technique I grasped incidentally while researching the path of death."
Thanatos's words slowly sounded, while Lefiya's condition on the chessboard worsened.
Her breath rapidly weakened, like a balloon being popped, or like a poor mouse poisoned by paraquat.
The concept of death was rapidly imprinting itself inside her!
Facing the confused expressions of Shirou and Riveria, Thanatos smiled and spoke:
"It seems you understand. That's right, the mark I carved is not essentially a mark manipulating the soul, but a mark inscribing death.
At the very moment when you, Emiya, triggered the observer effect and directly struck the soul's essence, I activated the fundamental ability of the mark and inscribed the death outcome for this Miss Lefiya's soul!
And as is said, death is the end of all things, and the soul is no exception — her death is an indisputable conclusion."
Thanatos's words echoed slowly.
This was clearly his real trump card, the last move that overturned the situation at the final moment.
Although on the current chessboard, Shirou still had three pieces — Gareth, Tiona, and Anakitty — their strength was far inferior to the level 7 Masked Man.
Therefore, once Lefiya was erased by the mark of death, Shirou's side would have no chance to defeat the Masked Man, sealing a certain defeat.
"How could it be... even at this point, still no way to win?"
Riveria, watching Lefiya's soul become increasingly thin and begin to dissipate, could not help but show a desperate expression.
She admired Shirou who had created miracle after miracle to win.
But even facing such Shirou, Riveria could not imagine him turning the tide and winning in such a desperate situation.
"You have done well enough, Emiya Shirou," Thanatos smiled at Shirou with the composure of a victor, "You are the most special human I have ever seen. This is not because of your power, but because you always do things that even gods do not expect — creating miracles.
However, allow me to advise you — losing here is the best outcome for you, because some truths are simply beyond human endurance!
Rather than facing the truth and ending up like a moth drawn to the flame, shattered into pieces, it's better to stop here and halt your pursuit of truth.
After all, sometimes, relying on false truths to realize false justice is what grants people true happiness. Forcing yourself to find the so-called truth, pursuing true justice, in the end will only lead to a miserable, tragic, and inevitably hopeless outcome."
Thanatos spoke coldly to Shirou, as if making a special proclamation. Shirou's expression didn't change at all in response. He didn't even glance at the Grim Reaper, his gaze firmly fixed on Lefiya.
"You just said I misunderstood the true nature of your power, didn't you?" Shirou looked at Thanatos. "That was indeed a mistake I made. However, I'm not the only one who made a mistake, Grim Reaper Thanatos."
"What?"
"I had Lefiya use the magic 'Empathy' just now, and the reason I triggered that spell wasn't only to break your soul manipulation. It was also so that I could temporarily synchronize mentally with Lefiya and remotely control her soul!"
"What nonsense! Just 'Empathy' magic, how could it possibly control a soul!"
Thanatos found Shirou's words unbelievable.
But Shirou smiled and said, "A mere Empathy spell alone, of course it wouldn't work. But Thanatos, you haven't forgotten, the soul manipulation spell you cast hasn't completely vanished yet, right?
Since you can use the remaining part to imprint the Death Mark on Lefiya, then after understanding the nature of the soul, I can naturally use that remaining part of your spell to briefly connect with Lefiya's soul!
The Empathy spell was just a key designed to achieve all this!"
"..."
Thanatos widened his eyes at Shirou's words.
Although it was hard to imagine that Shirou, just by understanding the soul, could take control of his spell — after all, this kind of thing only exists logically and theoretically — since Shirou
had already created miracles again and again so far, Thanatos had no choice but to believe that Shirou really might create another miracle.
In fact, Shirou wasn't just likely to create a miracle, he was already creating one.
During the conversation with the Grim Reaper, he had already completed the soul connection with Lefiya, remotely taking over her soul body.
"But what's the use of this?" Thanatos accepted the fact Shirou had connected with the soul. "That girl named Lefiya has already been affected by my Death Mark; her soul will endlessly weaken under my power until it completely disperses! Even if you control her, what use is a dying pawn?"
"You just said 'dying pawn,' right?" Shirou glanced at Thanatos. "Since it's dying, that means death hasn't arrived yet. I only need to control her body before the Death Mark takes full effect and eliminate the Masked Man!"
"Her body?"
"What?!"
Not only did Thanatos fall into shock at Shirou's words, but Riveria standing nearby also couldn't believe it. But no matter how others felt, Shirou had already acted.
Through the soul connection, he completely synchronized with Lefiya's consciousness, and in a state of perfect fusion, matched her rhythm and controlled the girl's Elf Ring to activate!
Shirou wasn't skilled with elven magic, so first, he subtly prompted Lefiya to cast the magic and complete the initial preparations.
"Arrow of the Liberating Light, Bowstaff of the Holy Tree, I am the master of the bow."
With Lefiya murmuring the chant, a phantom bow made of magic energy appeared in her right hand. The longbow was drawn slowly, ready to shoot.
Then, Shirou decisively accepted Lefiya's body. After switching, using Lefiya's power, he cast his own magic.
"Spirit Magic." "Caladbolg - Pseudo Spiral Sword!"
As Shirou controlled Lefiya's body to release the magic, a weapon appeared in the girl's hand that wasn't exactly the Pseudo Spiral Sword but was at least 70% similar.
This was not Shirou's own Projection Magic, but an elven spell Lefiya possessed.
Since Lefiya could use all magic of the elven clan, and Shirou himself had an extremely high mastery of projection, even when using completely different elven magic, he created an almost indistinguishable technique.
What was finally produced was a forged Pseudo Spiral Sword!
"Pour everything into this arrow!"
Shirou and Lefiya took a deep breath simultaneously. Their minds synchronized almost completely, producing resonance.
Finally, as the bowstring was pulled to the extreme, the spiral-shaped weapon transformed into a gale, suddenly released from Lefiya's hand.
"Pierce through, unfailing arrow!!"
Lefiya's shout rang out.
For a moment, everyone saw a stunning streak of light, like a storm tearing through space, instantly traversing the long distance and arriving before the Masked Man.
"!!!"
Unexpectedly, even under the influence of the Death Mark, Lefiya could release such a terrifying attack. The Masked Man suddenly realized that she had no ability to dodge this arrow.
So she chose to defend, using all her magical power to form a barrier to block this deadly attack.
Originally, with the Masked Man's level 7 combat power, enhanced by the God's Game, she should have been able to block this arrow.
Even if she sustained some injuries, she should have survived.
However, the Masked Man didn't notice that at the moment Shirou shot the arrow, having directly witnessed death, he had awakened the "Mystic Eyes of Death Perception."
Although an immature ability, it accidentally activated and precisely struck the "Line of Death" that existed on the Masked Man.
Once the Line of Death is hit, things rush toward the inevitable end.
The Masked Man clearly did not understand this principle.
Therefore, she never expected that this seemingly ordinary arrow would immediately take away all her future possibilities and instantly send her into the end of all things — death!
Snap!
At the moment the spiral arrow fell, Thanatos's last pawn collapsed miserably on the ground like a kite cut loose.
Thus, this God's Game, a dance with death, officially reached its end.
The victor was Shirou Emiya!
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